panguitch's Full Review: Judyann Grant - Chicken Said, "Cluck!"
We have taught all our children to read using Siegfried Engelmann's Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which isn't perfect but works amazingly well if you apply it with diligence. My four year old son still has a few lessons left, but I had a chance to pick up Chicken said, "Cluck!" and have it signed by author Judyann Ackerman Grant and illustrator Sue Truesdell, so I cheated and brought it home for him to read to me.
Of all our kids he started with the biggest desire to read, but at times he's been the one that's struggled the most, so I've been wondering how he'll handle the transition to reading regular books and I was surprised by the interest he showed in Chicken said, "Cluck!" and how quickly he plowed through it.
Grant deserves credit for this, and it's no wonder the book received a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor (The Geisel Award is for the best American book for beginning readers in English). Her text is perfect for the new reader, with simple words and short sentences. Many of the longer words are easy compounds like pumpkin. Certain words reappear often, as do key phrases, providing the repetition that's essential both for retention and to give the new reader a gratifying sense of their own improvement.
The story is about Earl (his name was the word that gave my son the most trouble) and his friend Pearl, who decide to plant pumpkins but have trouble keeping pesky Chicken away from their garden. They soon find out that grasshoppers are even bigger pests, and that's when Chicken comes to the rescue, chasing the grasshoppers away just as the kids had chased her away earlier.
This provides a great circularity to the story, but I find it irritatingly unrealistic. Chickens don't chase bugs. They eat them. Anyone familiar with my distaste for sugar-coated fairy tales will not be surprised that I prefer my children not be spared the fact that chickens eat grasshoppers. Those less easily nettled will have no trouble overlooking this in what is otherwise an ideal early reader.
Truesdell's drawings are colorful, warm, and pleasant. Chicken steals the show, peering over the children's shoulders and getting underfoot. But the grasshoppers are cute too. In fact, if they were less cute maybe we wouldn't have to pretend they don't get eaten.
After years of reading to your child, the first time he reads a book to you is a moment to treasure. I'm a little disappointed that this memory involved a silly lie, but I suppose a little salt only makes the happiness sweeter.
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